This biodegradable badge relates to name badges for meetings and conventions and more specifically to the manufacture and material of a badge envelope and a lanyard with a clip that degrade upon extended exposure to sunlight, oxygen, and moisture.
Promoting goodwill and the exchange of information, meetings and conventions seek conversation and dialogue among their attendees, the people attending the meeting or convention. Conversations occur among two or more people. However, starting a conversation requires skill and a little risk taking. Often, people express reluctance at starting a conversation, especially with a stranger. Larger meetings and conventions generally have many people attending, most of them strangers to one another.
As a means of overcoming shyness and reluctance to start a conversation, event planners and organizers provide name badges to attendees of meetings and conventions. The name badges have the name of an attendee and the meeting or convention title printed on the badge. The name badge can be an adhesive decal that releasably sticks to clothing. The name badge can be a durable tag that releasably pins to clothing. Often, a name badge includes a paper tag with the attendee's name and meeting title printed upon it. The name tag is then inserted into a small envelope with a least one transparent face to reveal the attendee's name. Then the envelope is clasped within a lanyard and the attendee wears the lanyard about his/her neck during the meeting or convention. Attendees report that the sight of others wearing name tags similar to theirs boosts camaraderie and exchange of information during the meeting. The lanyards also provide a print receptive surface for advertisers. The event planners often sell the advertising space upon lanyards to defray meeting costs. Attendees walk around a meeting venue displaying the name of the advertiser on the lanyard. The lanyard often includes a clip for grasping the envelope containing the nametag.
Like other events and good times, meetings and conventions come to an end. After a meeting or convention, attendees return home with many things, such as promotional items, collected at the meeting. Often, the promotional items languish on shelves and tables in offices. In time, the promotional items are given away to others or disposed. Along with the promotional items, the name tags, envelopes, and lanyards enter the waste stream and collect in landfills.